House Bill Would Protect Students' Right to Wave, Wear 'Old Glory'
by Jim Brown
May 8, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A congressman from the Tar Heel State says public schools that outlaw the display of the American flag need to be punished.
Representative Walter Jones of North Carolina (3rd District) has introduced HR 5255, the American Flag Display Protection Act. Under the bill, schools that do not protect the right of a student to respectfully display the flag could lose federal funding. "The most important symbol of any nation is the national flag," Jones said in introducing the bill. "Since ancient times, flags or banners have served to identify and unify groups of people, especially in times of war."
According to Jones, a constituent in his district had asked him to draft a measure in response to illegal immigrants waving Mexican flags in American streets -- and a Colorado school suspending several students for wearing U.S. Marine T-shirts or shirts with U.S. flags.
Jones says he sees a real need for this legislation. "I think that this country is in so much trouble from the illegal immigration to the attack on religious freedom in this country that I just felt that this was the right thing to do," Jones shares.
According to news reports, some schools in three western states have banned the display of national flags and the wearing of clothes with patriotic symbols -- bans that Jones' office says were imposed after confrontations between students that were sparked by the ongoing national debate over illegal immigration.
In reaction, Jones states that "the display of the American flag by students should be afforded an extraordinary level of protection -- and should by no means be equated with the treatment of those who choose to display the flag of foreign powers."
A press release from the congressman's office explains that HR 5255 would prohibit a school from receiving federal grants or contracts if it has a policy or practice that infringes on the rights of its students to display or wear the American flag in a respectful manner. "School officials [who allow such an infringement] should not do so with consequence," the lawmaker states.
A member of the House since 1994, Jones observes that "in many ways America is under assault." And like himself, he says "thosewho believe in the Constitution and the Bible as well need to do what we think is right to protect the freedoms of this country." And one of those freedoms, he notes, is the freedom to respectfully display or wear Old Glory. "I don't know why a student, if he or she wants to display the American flag in a respectful way, why they should not be able to do so," Jones says.
In late March, students at a high school in Montebello, California, cuts classes and marched from their school to another area high school where they lowered the American flag then hoisted the Mexican flag above an upside-down American flag. According to news reports, one student was punished for the incident by his high school in accordance with the California Education Code.
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